Eu Vivi Antes

Jock Mahoney and Ann Harding (the only legitimate actress in this film, along with John McIntyre, who is the only A actor), give interesting performances in a One Step Beyond type plot: a pilot has assumed the life memories of a WW1 pilot who died decades before.

As a child, he steals a plane at an air show and lands with great skill, without ever having had a lesson (and probably giving his mother a stroke).

As an older airline pilot after WW2, he suddenly puts a commercial plane getting ready to land into a steep nosedive; as he has flashbacks to WW 1 combat.

This, of course, does not go over well with his employers, and they suspend him while he is in the hospital recovering. John McIntyre is the psychologist given the task to find out what is wrong with him and to fix it. I not reveal the incident that jolts his memory, but Ann Harding is involved that sequence, and a few other important sequences later.

Not a classic, or a great noir film, but entertaining, and will keep you engaged.

A year or two before this film was released, the biggest best seller in the US was a book called "The Search for Bridey Murphy," a book about reincarnation. In that book a modern woman supposedly knew intimate details of the life of Bridey Murphy, an obscure Irish woman who died in the 19th century and of whom she had never heard. This silly film, in which a contemporary (1956) man remembers details in the life of a WWI pilot who was killed in action, was obvious intended to capitalize on "Bridey Murphy"'s success. It's not a good movie.

There is one reason, and only one, to see this film, and that is to see the gorgeous Leigh Snowden. She made very few film and retired from acting before she was 30, after she, truly a woman of the 50s, married accordianist Dick Contino and dedicated herself to raising a family. If her career had been better managed, or if she had been more committed to acting, she might have rivaled some of the blonde sex symbols of the 50s, such as Monroe and Mansfield. But it was not to be. Since this film isn't on video, the only chance you'll have to see it is if you're lucky enough to catch it on cable, most likely during the wee hours. Otherwise, your best opportunity to see the Lovely Leigh is in "All That Heaven Allows," an excellent Douglas Sirk soaper. Leigh, alas, will never be seen again; she died of cancer in 1982.

I have read most of the other reviews and I have almost nothing to say about the subject of this excellent film on a meagre budget which is reincarnation. The ' almost nothing ' is that I do not know and posit the fact that no one knows, and respect those who are against being reborn and those who don't. But what I do believe is that despite Universal Studios giving two of its ' minor ' actors to play the lead roles that they both give extraordinarily good performances. Jock Mahoney as the pilot who thinks he has been reincarnated is utterly convincing, and the horror and dismay he feels at the beginning of this realisation made me feel that he was far better as an actor than the celebrated Rock Hudson. The same goes for Leigh Snowden, who could have equalled Marilyn Monroe, shows an intelligence and sensitivity in her support for her husband to be, and the nightmarish ( literally ) situation he is in. Why Hollywood did not realise that they had physically beautiful, talented actors who could have played in ' A ' films as well as ' B ' films is beyond understanding. My I don't know about this is much larger than that of reincarnation, and I am saddened to see that both Mahoney and Snowden were so ill used. And then there is Ann Harding, a superb actor who was understood as such and the presence of all three of them at the close of the film brought tears to my eyes. A scene that any budding actor should be able to see, and yet this film has as far as I know been dumped on the bonfire of unwanted films for far too long. There is also a lot of communication in the scenario, and serious discussion which is so lacking in many a Hollywood film of this current verbally poverty stricken era. The direction is capable, the sets minimal but for anyone who loves actor's cinema it is a must see. YouTube has it in a weathered copy, and I for sure will watch it again. I give it a 9 instead of 10 because it should not have been given ' B ' film treatment, and have perhaps been respected more.

****SPOILERS**** Have we lived before? Is reincarnation a fact that can be proved scientifically as well as believed philosophically? This mystery of life after death, or death before life, has baffled the most renowned minds and thinkers since the dawn of recorded history; from the Orient to ancient Egypt and Greece and to the great philosophers of Europe from the middle ages to modern times.

John Bolan, Jock Mahoney, is a commercial pilot who had a fascination with flying since he was a little boy back in Schenectady New York. At the age of 12 in 1931 young Johnny got into the cockpit of a bi-plane and few and landed it like a seasoned pilot. It was the first time that Johnny ever was on a plane much less fly it.

One afternoon when he was about to fly his plane to New York John sees an elderly woman passenger and all of a sudden his mind fills up with memories of a past life that he led. John sees himself as a Let. Peter Stevens a WWI US Army pilot who was shot down over Villars France on April 29, 1918. It's that tragic memory almost causes John to crash his plane with him and all on board now in 1956.

Hospitalized John's thoughts of a life before has him leave and go investigate if there really was a Let. Peter Stevens who was killed in an air battle over France in 1918. Seeing his good friend and lawyer Robert Allen,Simon Scott, about the matter Robert checked out the information that John gave him and comes back with a hit; there was a Let. Peter Stevens and he was shot down over France in April 1918.

John now finds out who that passenger who brought back those memories of WWI and finds out that her name is Jane Stone, Ann Harding, and goes to Philadelphia where she lives. He's determined find out from her if she knew Let. Peter Stevens and, to John's surprise,is informed by Jane that not only did she know Peter Stevens but was engaged to marry him! This revelation by John being Peter, in another life, leaves Jane almost in shock and asks John to please leave.

John who never believed in, or even thought about, reincarnation now is firmly convinced that he lived before and lived the life of Peter Stevens. Nothing that the doctors or psychiatrists at the hospital say can convince John otherwise other then the unproven fact that, like the movie says, "He lived before". The only thing that can positively prove that he was Peter Stevens in another life is for the reluctant Jane Stone, who's persuaded by John's fiancée Lois Gordon (Leigh Snowden), to come to New York. John needs Jane to confirm events between her and Peter that only she knows about. With that John as well as Jane can put the case of Peter Stevens to rest one way or another and see if the theory of reincarnation is in fact a fact or not a fact.

Intelligent film about a mysterious subject, reincarnation, and trying to be not too obviously for or against it. Even though the end of "I've Lived Before" does make a strong case for rebirth it does it in an honest and un-sensational way. Whenever I think about the fact or myth of reincarnation I'm always reminded of the quote by the celebrated 18th century French author and philosopher Voltaire who said of the theory of reincarnation: "It is not more surprising to be born twice then once".

This film was released during the short-lived "Bridey Murphy" reincarnation craze of the mid-1950s. As such, I expected it to be somewhat exploitative, but it actually turned out to be a serious, well-intentioned study of reincarnation that presented alternate viewpoints, explored psychological explanations, and told the story of someone whose reincarnation story appears to be true. Jock Mahoney, usually associated with western and jungle films, does a fine job as a pilot who has strange, unexpected flashes of memories and unexplained knowledge from the life of a World War I pilot who died in 1918. My teenaged daughter, who was working on the computer in the same room where I was watching this film, stopped her work a few minutes into the film, and soon after came over to the couch and watched the rest of the film, riveted. I should state that this is a low-budget B-movie and contains a lot of talky sequences and serious-minded soliloquies--the kind of things that are not too popular with today's jaded, ironic screenwriters-- but those who would enjoy a serious (although in some ways naive) examination of reincarnation on a b-movie level should find this film worth seeking out.